Each month, I buy a book of twenty stamps. I create twenty post cards. I write twenty short stories about them. I send them to twenty strangers. This is the twenty stamps project.

Request a postcard by sending your snail mail address to sean.arthur.cox@gmail.com or find me on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/SeanArthurCox

Monday, December 24, 2012

Hay Racing



In the backwoods of Tennessee where wifi is unheard of, men will race anything to pass the time. Naturally they raced cars and horses, but one can't race horses every day and cars need gas. After a while, they began racing cows (ridden) and pigs (no jockey). Still, too much cow racing and the milk got weird and pigs required special pens to make them go in the direction they needed. Too much work. Chickens wandered about aimlessly and would escape the special pig tracks. Turtles and frogs were too indifferent. One day, Bartholomew Magee came up with the notion of racing hay. The bales were already round and would roll well, and besides, the crop needed to be gathered up anyway. Why not make the finish line the collection point? So they did. Though it took some thinking, they even overcame the only real obstacle. Convincing the hay to race. In the end, it was a simple matter. They motivated the hay the way most people are motivated. They told the hay it wasn't good enough for the far end of the field and let hay prove them wrong.  


- Originally mailed to A. Anderson of Portland, Oregon

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